Getting there is half the fun!
I made it. I'm at the Red Lantern House in Beijing, a friendly hostel with possibly the best common areas I've ever seen. Pictures will follow, I haven't actually dug my camera out of my bag yet but that will happen soon since my next stop is the Forbidden City.
Being majorly jetlagged, I managed to stay awake after the long flight and navigating the buses to the hostel only until about 9pm, then promptly woke up again at about 1am. I stayed awake in the common area for a while hanging out with some rambunctious card players and then a few hours later headed back to bed and got another 4-5 hours, so I'm feeling pretty good right now energy-wise. I also just ate breakfast in a decidedly non-chinese style but that's what you get in these places: corn flakes and orange juice, eggs optional.
I'm staying in a 6 person dorm, 3 bunk beds, but sleeping was no problem apart from the jetlag. Once I actually fell asleep I didn't hear a damned thing. Everyone else was apparently equivalently exhausted. The hostel is large and there seem to be a lot of people here, but it's sufficiently spread out that it doesn't feel crowded. I've met people from China, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, England, and Israel so far. After I leave in a few minutes, my first stop is to buy a SIM card so I can contact my friend in China and meet up with her. I've been speaking a decent amount of Chinese and I feel like I'm shaking off the rust a little.
Ok, enough typing, time to go out and explore. The weather is beautiful by the way, sunny and about 75 degrees I'd guess, maybe a bit more. So it appears to be an auspicious start...
Being majorly jetlagged, I managed to stay awake after the long flight and navigating the buses to the hostel only until about 9pm, then promptly woke up again at about 1am. I stayed awake in the common area for a while hanging out with some rambunctious card players and then a few hours later headed back to bed and got another 4-5 hours, so I'm feeling pretty good right now energy-wise. I also just ate breakfast in a decidedly non-chinese style but that's what you get in these places: corn flakes and orange juice, eggs optional.
I'm staying in a 6 person dorm, 3 bunk beds, but sleeping was no problem apart from the jetlag. Once I actually fell asleep I didn't hear a damned thing. Everyone else was apparently equivalently exhausted. The hostel is large and there seem to be a lot of people here, but it's sufficiently spread out that it doesn't feel crowded. I've met people from China, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, England, and Israel so far. After I leave in a few minutes, my first stop is to buy a SIM card so I can contact my friend in China and meet up with her. I've been speaking a decent amount of Chinese and I feel like I'm shaking off the rust a little.
Ok, enough typing, time to go out and explore. The weather is beautiful by the way, sunny and about 75 degrees I'd guess, maybe a bit more. So it appears to be an auspicious start...
posted by Dan at 5:10 PM
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